This invention relates to novel processes for preparing disaccharide or trisaccharide C6-C12 fatty acid esters having high i-content and materials prepared therefrom. The invention also relates to processes for preparing high a-content cellobiose C6-C2 fatty acid esters and materials prepared therefrom.
Highly substituted fatty acid esters of disaccharide and trisaccharides are useful materials. These materials can form discotic columnar liquid crystals. They may also serve as thickeners, plasticizers, and rheology modifiers.
Cellobiose alkanoates have unique physical properties. It is known that the xcex1-anomer form of the cellobiose ester generally forms more stable mesophases than does the xcex2-anomer. Takada and coworkers describe the preparation of high a-content cellobiose octanonanoate (xe2x80x9cCBONxe2x80x9d). (Takada, A.; Ide, N.; Fukuda, T.; Miyamoto, T. Liq. Crystals 1995, 19, 441-448). This paper describes in limited detail a method to produce both high alpha content and high beta content cellobiose octanonanoate and other fatty acid esters.
There has not been described an efficient process to prepare cellobiose fatty acid esters having a high a-content. A primary drawback in the prior art methods is the need for extensive processing of the product to obtain sufficiently high purity of the disaccaharide and trisaccharide fatty acid esters directly from the esterification reaction. Those skilled in the art would recognize that further enrichments in the purity of the product (alpha content) can be obtained by additional recrystallization through any number of standard methods. One of skill in the art will recognize that repeated recrystallization can add considerable expense to the production and can greatly reduce the product yield, thus making the process impractical for an industrial scale. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to develop a process to prepare high purity disaccharide and monosaccharide fatty acid esters wherein such materials may be utilized as prepared from an esterification reaction without the need for purification. Moreover, it would be highly desirable to develop processes wherein novel disaccharide and trisaccharide fatty acid esters are prepared.
This invention relates to novel processes for preparing disaccharide or trisaccharide C6-C12 fatty acid esters having a high xcex1-content and materials prepared therefrom. The invention also relates to processes for preparing high xcex1-content cellobiose C6-C12 fatty acid esters and materials prepared therefrom.
Additional advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the detailed description, which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory aspects of the invention, and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.